How I Fell in Love With Cloud Security (And Why You Should Care)

❤️ A personal dive into cloud security, career tips, and the chaos we secretly love.

I didn’t plan to fall in love with cloud security. Like every love story, it started with chaos — hardcoded keys everywhere, overly permissive roles, and a networking setup that made me question everything I knew about “best practices.”

But somewhere between debugging IAM policies at midnight and locking down public S3 buckets, I realized something: I loved this stuff. The detective work, the pressure, the rush, the responsibility, the tiny misconfigurations that could open massive attack surfaces—and the satisfaction of catching them first.

Cloud security isn’t just a checklist. It’s a mindset. A culture. And yes, sometimes it's a bit of a nightmare. But if you do it right? It’s where some of the most exciting work in tech is happening.

Fair warning: this blog won’t be a short one. But hey, when you’re obsessed with something, you talk about it—a lot. Everything I’m about to share comes straight from the field — real experiences, lessons learned, and the kind of cloud security chaos that turns into clarity over time. So grab a coffee, and let’s dive deep together.

Small Steps. Big Impact. That’s Cloud Security.

Let’s be honest — cloud security can feel overwhelming. There are hundreds of things to learn, tools to choose from, and threats that we need to watch. But here’s the truth: you don’t have to do everything on day one. What matters is getting started — and making cloud security a part of how your company thinks and works.

If you don’t have a cloud security engineer yet, hire one. If you can’t, grow one. Train someone on your team who’s curious and committed. Cloud security isn’t something you can ignore and hope it’ll be fine. It’s critical.

And don’t just assume everything is safe because your cloud provider says so. Pentesting your cloud setup — either by working with a consultancy or doing it in-house — is one of the best things you can do. It helps you see where the real risks are hiding.

We need to remember, this isn’t a one-time task. Cloud security needs to be part of your process — every day, every project, every deployment. Just like you monitor uptime or performance, you should be checking for misconfigurations, over-permissioned roles, and exposed services.

Use the tools that are out there. Cloud-native tools, third-party tools — there’s no shame in getting help. Cloud Security Posture Management tools, IAM analyzers, and vulnerability scanners… they all exist for a reason. If budget’s an issue, you can even build some basic checks yourself. It might not be perfect, but it’s a start.

The most important thing? Don’t wait until it’s too late. You don’t need a flawless architecture. You need awareness, ownership, and a plan. Know your weak spots. Document them. Improve over time. That’s how you build strong cloud security — step by step.

Becoming a Cloud Security Engineer: No One Path, Just Persistence

This is probably the hardest question I get: “How do I become a cloud security engineer?” And honestly? There’s no single answer. Just a lot of blog posts, certificates, and opinions. Yes, you can and should read those blog posts. Yes, you can get certified — AWS, Azure, Google, security-specific ones like the Security Specialty, CEH, or OSCP. They help. But they don’t make you a cloud security engineer.

What matters is how you think. Cloud security is like a giant puzzle. 🧩You won’t have all the pieces at first, but if you’re curious and patient, you start to see how things fit together — how architecture connects, where weak points live, and how threats work. Learn how to read an architecture diagram like it’s a crime scene. Do threat modeling. Ask yourself: What could go wrong here? Who can access what? What if this key leaks? Start seeing every design as a story of trust, access, and potential failure.

And here’s the fun part: break things. 🤯 No, not in production. Please. Create your own AWS account. Build something. Misconfiguring things on purpose. Watch what happens. Try to attack your setup. Then secure it. Read the docs. Even the boring ones. Especially the ones that aren’t security-related. The more you understand how services work, the better you’ll know how to protect or attack them.

🫠 Be curious. Be brave. Be patient. There’s no fast track. But if you stick with it, you’ll find your way — and maybe even fall in love with it like I did.

Okay, So You’re the Cloud Security Person Now. Here’s What You Do.

First of all — breathe. You don’t need to secure everything in one day. But you do need to start with the big picture.

🤞Take a step back. Understand the full landscape.
Before jumping into tools and policies, figure out what you’re working with. Which regions are in use? Which projects? Are you in AWS, Azure, GCP — or all of them? Are there dev and prod environments separated properly? Do you even know who owns what?

You can’t protect what you don’t know exists. So map it all out. Meet with teams. Ask questions. Understand the architecture. This step sounds simple — but it’s the one most people skip.

🤞Know your scope — and the limits of your team.
You might dream of a perfectly secure setup using every shiny new service, but the real world has… budgets. And legacy systems. And a lot of “we’ll fix that later.”

Learn what your company (or client) can do. Security should be a top priority — but you need to be smart about it. Not every AWS security service fits every team. Some are expensive. Some don’t even solve your specific problems. Prioritize. Analyze. Be strategic.

🤞Turning services on isn’t enough.
You enabled GuardDuty. Congrats. Now what? Cloud security isn’t a personal to-do list. It’s a team sport. That means reporting findings, working with DevOps and developers, getting things remediated — and making progress.

The real job? Turning findings into action. Working with others. Closing the loop. If you’re not part of the conversation, you’re not part of the solution.

Closing Thoughts 🧠

Cloud security isn’t easy — but that’s exactly what makes it exciting. It forces you to stay curious, think deeply, collaborate with others, and constantly evolve. Whether you’re just starting or leading a team, remember: you don’t need to know everything. You just need to care enough to keep learning, keep questioning, and keep showing up. There’s no perfect setup, no magical tool, no single path.

But if you’re here, reading all of this — you’re already on the right track. 🩷